For board manufacturing equipment for producing boards mounted with multiple components, there are solder printing machines, component mounters, solder reflow machines, board inspection machines and so on, and there are many cases in which these are configured into board producing lines by linking them with a board conveyance device. Many of these board manufacturing equipment are equipped with a moving body which performs work after moving to a specified position above the board, and a linear motor device can be used as a means for moving the moving body. This type of linear motor device generally comprises a track member with multiple magnets with alternating N poles and S poles arranged along the moving direction, and a moving body which includes an armature with a core and coil.
Here, in order to achieve a large driving force with the linear motor device, there are three main means: (A) increase the current flowing through the coil; (B) increase the magnetic power of the magnets; (C) increase the permeability of the core. With regard to means (B) and (C), the physical limits are close to being reached with current technology and a rapid improvement in the future cannot be hoped for. It follows that, although (A) is a valid means, when a large current flows, copper loss in the core causes the amount of heat generated to increase and problems arise such as thermal deformation and thermal deterioration of the members of the configuration. Therefore, various cooling mechanisms for linear motor devices have been presented, such as those in patent literature 1 to 3.
With the linear motor applied for by this applicant in patent literature 1, fellow coils adjacent to multiple cores are arranged in a staggered manner and with gaps in between, with an end of a heat pipe inserted in the gaps between the coils and the other end of a heat pipe protruding from the gaps and with multiple fins provided. By using such a cooling mechanism which uses heat pipes, temperature rises in the coils making up the armature can be controlled well.
Also, the armature for a linear motor disclosed in patent literature 2 uses a core with slots formed between multiple pole teeth, and multiple excitation windings (coils) for exciting teeth sections thereof which are arranged in the slots, and piping for cooling is provided so that the section positioned inside the slot of the excitation winding is sandwiched from both sides. By this, it makes it such that cooling of the pole teeth and excitation windings can be performed efficiently.
Further, the linear motor disclosed in patent literature 3 comprises a stator with multiple permanent magnets in a row, and a moving element which has armature coils wound around a core, and is provided with a cooling unit between an armature attachment sheet which is provided on the upper section of the armature and a table which is arranged via a thermal insulation sheet even higher up, and a heat pipe and heat sink are provided inside the cooling unit. By this, it makes it such that heat can be effectively removed from the armature while ensuring no heat deformation by transmitting heat to the table.
Further, the linear compression device of patent literature 4 is within the linear motor, and is characterized in that it is configured with items including radiation passages formed contacting the bobbin wound around the coil, and a cooling fluid supply means which supplies cooling fluid to the radiation passages. In the accompanying claims, a radiation pipe as a radiation passage, oil as cooling fluid, and an oil pump as a cooling fluid supply means are each disclosed. By this, it makes it such that a shortened lifespan and decreased efficiency of the linear compression device due to excess heat of the coil are controlled.